


darling, only you can ease my mind

by such_a_life



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Let Percy Cry, Percy is just a kid, Post-TLO, Pre-HOO, annabeth is a good girlfriend, deep talks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:40:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25915267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/such_a_life/pseuds/such_a_life
Summary: My take on Let Percy Cry. Percy and Annabeth have a talk about the war and the friends they left behind.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 7
Kudos: 85





	darling, only you can ease my mind

“Percy, what do you think?”

All of the counselors turn to Percy, who’s intensely focused on the pen twirling between his fingers. Before the war, Percy did not hold nearly as much sway at the counselor meetings. Before, he and Annabeth were the kids, the newbies. Now, they are some of the only holdouts from the previous group. Beckendorf, Selena, Michael - they have all been replaced. None of their replacements are new campers, but they are new to the experience of being counselors, and even the old counselors are new to this experience - the experience of repairing and returning to life post-war. 

Everyone says that war is horrible. But Annabeth didn’t realize the devastating effects until the swords were down, the funeral shrouds were burnt, and they all had to find ways to get up every day and just live. Percy has been her rock these past few weeks, Hades, he’s been her rock these past few years. He’s let her cry about Luke, about Selena, about the stress of rebuilding Olympus. It may be her life’s dream, but the gods are hard to work for on a good day, and there have been very few so far in this process. 

“Perce?” She reaches out a hand, but he jumps about a foot as soon as her fingers brush his shoulder. His wild eyes search the room, trying to take in his surroundings. It’s not until his eyes settle on hers that his leg stops bouncing, riptide slips back into his pocket, his shoulders soften.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, his eyes dropping to the floor. “I zoned out for a minute, what were we talking about?” 

She glances around the room, but everyone is already looking at her. It’s unusual for Percy to be so distracted during counselor meetings, especially one’s about the new cabins. “We were talking about the new cabins. Travis said that we should start with Hades and Nike, since they both already have claimed kids at camp.” She tries to keep her voice calm, but Percy’s leg starts shaking again as soon as she starts talking. “Are you okay?”

His leg stops moving immediately and his jaw tightens. “I’m fine, Annabeth. Let’s move on.” His voice is hard. There’s an edge to it that she’s heard very few times, and absolutely never directed towards her. The others must have noticed as well because Clarisse - Clarisse, of all people - raises an eyebrow at her. She returns it with a shrug as she turns back to Percy. 

“Percy? Are you sure you’re okay?” Jake Mason of the Hephaestus cabin asks. 

Percy’s eyes get that wild look in them again. Except this time it doesn’t go away, even when he looks at Annabeth. For a second she’s not sure if he even sees her, but then his eyes flash with something completely identifiable and then he’s standing.   
“I have to go.” He says suddenly, already heading to the door. “I’m sorry - I’m so sorry, I just - I have to go.” With that final proclamation, he’s gone. 

As soon as the door shuts behind him, all eyes are on her.   
“Is he okay?” Katie Gardner asks. 

Annabeth glances desperately between Katie and the door Percy left through. “I… I don’t know. I’ve never…” She trails off, unsure of anything at this point. She’s never seen him like that, never heard him snap at her before, never felt like such a bad girlfriend - such a bad best friend as she does right now. 

Drew Takana scoffs, because of course she has to make everything worse. Annabeth tries not to hate her because, as she learned with Rachel, hating other girls really never gets you very far. But Drew is different. People like her, so she’s sure deep down Drew is a good person who cares about her friends.That being said, she replaced Selena as if she meant nothing and, to make matters worse, she in no way tried to cover up her attraction to Percy after he and Annabeth started their relationship. So at this point, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Annabeth has a bit of a short temper when it comes to the leader of the Aphrodite cabin. “A good girlfriend would know what was going on with him.” She taunts.

“Gods, Drew, would you just shut up?” Annabeth groans. “I prefer to take my relationship advice from people who actually have good relationships.” Drew opens her mouth to retort, but Annabeth keeps talking. “Travis, have the Nike camper find me after dinner to work on cabin design. Now, I’m going to find my boyfriend. That’s enough for today.” 

They’ve been having daily meetings in an effort to return to normal as fast as possible, so Annabeth has no qualms about cutting this one meeting short in favor of running after her boyfriend. 

His sobs are loud enough to drown out anything else. She gasps and lets the door slam shut behind her, but none of that garners his attention. He’s facedown on his bed, face tucked into the crook of his elbow, still dressed in shoes and all. When the bed dips under Annabeth’s weight, it’s the first time his breath catches in acknowledgement of her presence. 

“Percy,” she whispers, “Shhh, it’s okay.” 

It’s not really okay, and there’s no need for him to shush, but that’s what you say to crying people, so it’s what Annabeth says. When it doesn’t work, she has to re-evaluate. Percy plays with her hair when she cries, maybe that will help?

In a moment of boldness, she lays down next to him on the bed. She presses a kiss to his shoulder and her fingers go to his hair, massaging over his scalp.   
“Please talk to me,” She requests. She moves even closer to him so that her head is sharing the pillow with his. 

He has the nerve to mumble, “I’m fine.” Which he clearly is not. 

She laughs under her breath. “No, you’re not. And you don’t have to be, Percy.” 

Finally, he turns to look at her. His face is bright red, splotchy and covered with tear tracks and a little snot. His seagreen eyes are bloodshot. She’s had her hand on his Achilles spot, but somehow this feels even more vulnerable, even more intimate. Her hand slips from his hair, down to cup his cheek. She surges forward and kisses him. It’s achingly gentle, an attempt to say everything that she doesn’t have words to say. I’m here. I won’t leave you. It’ll be okay. I care about you so much it terrifies me. I’m sorry I’ve dumped so much on you without letting you do the same.   
Her thumb brushes a few tears from his cheeks. 

“I can deal with this on my own.” He mumbles and tries to push her hand away. She stays steadfast - palm pressed to his face and thumb brushing his cheekbone. 

“You could. But you shouldn’t, and you don’t have to.” She drops her hand from his face, instead slipping it under his t-shirt and rubbing his back. “C’mon Perce. When has any good ever come from us hiding things from each other?”   
He shrugs and tries to pull away again, but she doesn’t let him. Her fingers brush across his vulnerable spot and he gasps, his eyes going wide. 

What else does Percy say to get her to talk? He’s usually just there at the right time. She’s already here, so there’s obviously something else she has to do. She’s only seen him cry twice before, and once was back when they were 12 when he thought he’d lost his mom. The other time had been right before the war, back during that stupid game of truth or dare when he finally admitted how scared he was to die. The night when they finally discussed their feelings, but still decided to wait.   
Now he doesn’t have anything to be scared of, his life is in no immediate danger. But they had lost so, so many people. The way Percy jumped when Jake asked him if he was okay, like he was surprised to see him there. She goes out on a limb. “You really miss Beckendorf, huh?” 

His eyes flash to hers and he swallows thickly. “Sometimes I forget.” He admits. “It’s like, something happens or I see something and my first thought will be wow, Beckendorf would love this. But then I just have this moment where I remember…” He trails off, and Annabeth waits for a moment to make sure he’s done. Then, she scoots back a bit and opens her arms. He accepts her invitation immediately, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his head against her neck. She falls onto her back from the momentum and holds him on top of her. Her one arm wraps around his shoulders, and her other hand returns to brushing through his hair. 

“Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe.” He admits. “Sometimes, it’s like I’m back on the mountain, holding the weight of the world on my back. Except now there’s no battle, there’s no one to take back the weight, nothing to distract me from the pressure and exhaustion.” 

She kisses the top of his head and pulls him tighter to her. “I feel it too, Percy. You don’t have to carry it alone. I’m here for you, so are the rest of your friends. You have your mom and Paul. You don’t have to pretend to be the hero anymore, Perce, you can talk to me.” 

He lifts his head and shimmies up her body so his face is right above hers. Her arm drops from around his shoulders and he takes her hand in his own.  
“Beck and Selena would lose their minds if they saw us right now.” He says, she laughs, because he’s right. There weren’t two people more excited for Percy and Annabeth to get together. 

“Selena would force us to double date all the time.” Annabeth adds. 

The corner of Percy’s mouth twitches upwards in a smile. “She would probably dress us so we looked nice enough for her.” 

“She would tease us about being nervous and all of our awkward firsts.” 

They exchange predictions about how Selena and Beckendorf would react to their relationship for a while, until they’re both laughing but their eyes are glossy with unshed tears. Percy’s face is still above hers, and one of his tears slips out first, dropping down onto her cheek. She laughs as her tears start to fall too. He dips down to kiss her and they’re both crying but both smiling. It’s weird to be feeling two extremely different emotions so strongly, but it feels therapeutic to finally remember their friends in a positive light for once. They died as heroes, and it’s easy to forget that they were so much more than that. It’s easy to forget that they weren’t trying to be heroes - none of them were - they were just kids fighting to protect the people and place they loved. 

Percy pulls away from her lips and once again ducks his head against her neck. He presses a few kisses to the dip of her collarbone then rolls over onto his back. Not willing to separate yet, Annabeth follows his movement and rolls on her side to rest her head on his chest. She brings a hand up to drum her fingers against his chest, right over his heart. 

“If you’d have told me a month ago that you’d be cuddling with me in my bed, I never would’ve believed you in a million years.” 

She looks up and he’s already looking down at her, a million dollar grin plastered across his handsome features. She smiles back.  
“If you’d have told me a month ago that I’d be cuddling with you in your bed, I’d have said that it’s about time.” 

He slips an arm around her waist and pulls her closer. “Yeah, yeah,” he dismisses, “we all know I took forever to ask you out.”

She laughs and leans forward to kiss his chin - the only part of him that she can reach without moving. “We got here eventually.” She concludes, “That’s what matters.”   
He doesn’t say anything else, but he kisses the top of her head. 

“We should do this more.” Annabeth sighs, looking up at him.

A teasing grin graces his features - one that she recognizes at the precursor to an awful joke or lame pick-up line. “Lay together in my bed? I completely agree.” She swats at his chest.

“No. Not lay in your bed more.” She rolls her eyes. “I meant we should talk more. I should know what’s going on in that seaweed brain of yours, so next time you freak out and run out of a meeting I don’t get accused of being a bad girlfriend for not knowing what you’re upset about.” 

She expects Percy to laugh, but instead he sits up, jostling her from his chest and causing her to fall onto her back on the bed. 

“Who told you that you’re a bad girlfriend?” 

“What?” She laughs, “Percy, it’s not a big deal. It was just a little comment.”

“It is a big deal.” He argues. “You’re a great girlfriend. Who said that to you?”

She props herself up on her elbows. “It was Drew.” She finally tells him, rolling her eyes once again at his insistence. “After you left, Katie asked if I knew what was wrong. Drew said that a good girlfriend would know, and I told her that I prefer to take relationship advice from people in good relationships. That’s the end of it. It was one little comment, and I handled it. Don’t get all weird and protective now that you’re my boyfriend.” 

He grins at her. “I am not weird and protective. I just don’t appreciate people commenting on my relationship.” 

“I guess you’ll just have to talk to me more.” Annabeth suggests, getting back to her original point. “She wouldn’t have had anything to comment on if I actually did know how you were feeling.” 

He shoots her an exasperated smile. “You’re not going to give this up?” 

She shakes her head. “Never. That’d be too easy.” She laughs as he falls back onto the bed in an exaggerated huff. “We don’t have to talk more today. Just check in with me more, okay? You’re always there for me when I need someone to talk to, let me be there for you too.”

When she looks back over at him, his smile is tired, but genuine. He holds out a hand and waits to talk until after she links their fingers together. “I’ll try to open up to you more. I’m just not used to it.” 

She leans over him and brushes his hair back from his forehead. “I just want you to try,” she confirms. He sighs and his eyes flutter shut as her fingertips trace from his hair, down his neck and come to rest on his chest. “You look tired. You should sleep.” 

“I can’t. We have work to do.” He tries to sit up but she keeps the pressure firm on his chest. 

“Not today.” She says, “Take the afternoon off. If anyone deserves to rest, it’s you.” 

“You deserve to rest too. Stay here and nap with me.” He requests. 

She’s not sure when Percy stopped blushing everytime he brushed her hand or she kissed his cheek, but she knows that, somehow, this tongue-tied idiot of a boy just asked her to stay and take a nap with him. In his bed. Together. Suddenly, she’s the one blushing and stammering like a fool. 

“Are - are you serious? Percy, I don’t - I mean, we - it’s only been - Percy…” She trails off. She realizes that she barely formed actual words, let alone a coherent sentence. She also realizes that this is the first time she’s been in his bed since they started dating. Eventually she manages to find her voice. “You want me to nap with you? In your bed?” 

He covers her hand on his chest, keeping her close to him. “We’ve napped together before.” 

“No,” Annabeth argues. “You’ve napped while I’ve done stuff. But we’ve never, like, napped together, Percy. Plus, what if someone comes looking for us” 

He tugs on her arm, trying to get her to lay down with him. “They’d probably be relieved to find us actually sleeping.” 

She wants to resist more. Wants to explain to him that they’re not supposed to be this comfortable together, that it terrifies her to be this close to him so soon in the relationship. But she is tired, and it would be better to find them sleeping than making out, and Percy is very cute when he’s all groggy and trying to wake up. “Fine. Let’s take a nap.” 

Percy lets out a whoop of triumph as he pulls Annabeth down on top of him, resulting in a fit of giggles from her. She settles on her side next to him and frowns at his position. “You used to always sleep on your side.” 

“Huh?” He turns his head to look at her, the fingers that were drumming on his belly still. 

“When we were on quests you’d never sleep on your back. You always slept on your side, no matter where we were.” 

He studies her for a few moments, a look on his face that she doesn’t quite recognize. “Ever since I took on the curse of Achilles, I can’t anymore.” His voice is soft, as if he’s whispering some dark secret. “I can’t sleep with my back exposed, it feels too vulnerable.” 

“Roll over.” His eyes, which had drifted down to stare at his hands while he was talking, suddenly shoot back up to meet hers. Before she can lose her nerve, or question what her move actually is, she repeats herself. Percy stares at her for a few more seconds before he slowly rolls away from her, exposing his back. His t-shirt rides up a bit, and she drops her fingers to his skin. They trace from his hip to the center of his back, up his spine then back down. She ghosts over his achille’s spot. 

“Annabeth…” He whispers, but then trails off. Her hand pulls out of his shirt, and instead she drapes it over his waist as she molds her body to his. Her knees press behind his, her chest presses on his back, her forehead is between his shoulder blades. He links his fingers with hers and she kisses between his shoulders. 

“Annabeth,” he repeats, but this time he continues, his voice still soft. “I can’t believe you watched me sleep on quests. You really had it bad, huh?” 

She flicks the back of his head, tries to bury her smile against his t-shirt. “Shut up, Percy.” 

“Okay,” he replies, “but only because I had it worse.”

**Author's Note:**

> Song title from Ease My Mind by Ben Platt. This is my first time publishing a fic, let me know what you think!


End file.
